 So, in tradition of our culture and also the tradition of our faith, we're here standing on hollow ground. We're not here to acknowledge the unceded land to the Abenaki, nor am I here to talk about who owns this land, but I do know that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So, we're here in this place at this time which is unprecedented. So good afternoon. My name is Reverend Mark Hughes. I am the executive director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, a minister at New Alpha Missionary Baptist Church, as well as the commander of post-782 Howard Plant Veterans of Foreign Wars, 102 years old, the oldest post in the state. I'm here speaking mostly on behalf of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and the role that we play in what it is that you're experiencing here today. As you sit where you are, whether you are family, whether you are friends, whether you are staff, whether you are an artist, whether you are a community member or friends of any of the aforementioned, I just want to emphasize to you that this is indeed an unprecedented time. This is indeed an unprecedented time. Right now in the wake of a global pandemic, in the wake also of what we know to be a racial awakening, not just nationally but globally, and also with the uprise of fascism globally and even our own democracy swinging and teetering at its very edge, make no mistake about it. This is an unprecedented time. So this is sobering, but it's also joyful because through the work of the Racial Justice Alliance, some of the things that we're seeing come to fruition are also unprecedented. Instead of going down a list of legislative accomplishments or even community-oriented work or cultural empowerment-related activities, not the least of which was First African Landing Day of the Fifth Order just this last couple weeks, and even the outreach and education which we continue to do. I'd rather talk more about the combination of all of those in the birth of a concept that we call cultural empowerment center, and I'd rather focus on the fact in the idea that in 2020 that we envisioned a place in our community where there would be a presence of our youth, our culture, and our wellness, and I'd rather also focus on the fact that it culminated in 2021 on the first day of November. Now sadly, we sent a giant home just before that, and his name was Richard Kim. So befittingly, that cultural empowerment center, as it came into existence, it had to bear his name out of respect, out of honor, to hold him up in perpetuity in this community. So this work is about the cultural empowerment, make no mistake about it, black people. This is about, this is for black people, this is by black people, and this is the first time in this, this city's, or in fact this state's history that there's been anything created by and for black people, where in which we could conduit or serve as a receptacle, those programs in services that have historically been inefficient, ineffective, or non-existent in our communities. So all of our people can get exactly what they need. So make no mistake, that is why we are here. So this is our house. This is what it's all about, this is what we do. Now with that resolved, I would say at the epicenter of everything that's happening in here is our culture, because if our culture did not exist, it wouldn't be anything different than anything anybody else is doing anywhere. So everything that we do here is centered again in our culture. As my wife would say, nothing about us without us. So just to be clear, that's what, if anybody ever asks any of you, well what makes Richard Kemp Center so special? What delineates them from what it is that's being done? Oh, we already have that in community. It's already serving us well. Nothing is okay, then what I would expect you would do is to turn squarely to them and say nothing about us without us, everybody should just say that once right now. Say it after me, nothing about us, nothing about us, without us, without us, and say this, what makes them different is culture. Thank you, honey. One more time. What makes them different is culture. Okay, thank you for that. And that's good for everybody, okay? I don't care what you look like, black culture is good for everybody, because it's at the epicenter of who we are as a nation, which is why we have the 1619 traveling exhibit right in front of you, because it goes to the heart of who we are as a people. Before I introduce my wife and I'll have a couple more brief remarks after this and we'll lead into what I hope to be a really rich, small ceremony and then you'll get a chance to walk more around, maybe even get a chance to talk to the artist and get a better idea of what it is that you're seeing, but I would say that as we're continuing to do this work and you look around today and you know at first I'm going to talk about the 1619 project, but I'm going to talk a little bit more about some of these other exhibits that are here, just know and understand that this goes, again, this goes to the heart of who we are, not just as black people, but as a nation, how this nation was built, how this nation, every major institution in this nation being informed by the work, the labor, the thoughts and the contribution of black folks, every major advancement, everything we know about America are very culture as American culture, I didn't say black American culture and its heart comes from us, here, black people and as sooner we can talk about that and as sooner that we can step away from the fact that it is resolved in the academy, there is no question that what I'm saying academically has been, it has been founded, established and resolved for the last 40 years, the disconnect is societally and also in our community and the politicization of what I'm trying to tell you, but I didn't come here to try to convince you, I just wanted to tell you why we're here, now I'm going to call on a couple names, Grace and King are in the house, I'm not going to call you up right now and hopefully at some point or another in the future if you desire we're going to want to hear from you, but I want to from the bottom of my heart, moving past the 1619 project to you, King, to you, Grace, to let you know that we do not take lightly what it is you have accomplished, it is not, it does not, it is incomprehensible what it is that you've accomplished, I've looked, I will look again and I will continue to look, there is much, much too much for me to be able to take on that's back here in this space, you should know those of you who are here, that this work started in January, started in January and these folks have been working their tails off, trying to get this massive and awesome exhibit in place and there is nothing, you can art hop all day long, this is not an art hop, this is a culture stop, so this came from the hearts of these people, this is at the roots of our culture and if we can embrace this in this place that was designed, standing on a three-legged stool of youth, wellness and culture, if we can embrace that here, if we can celebrate that today, if we can't prioritize that and make it something that stands out as being important to us, then we've all got problems and I'm not quite sure why we're here, so if you would please, please stand on your feet and give me a, give an applause for Grace and King and let them know how much you appreciate what it is that they've done and if it was for me, that would be okay but really let them know how much you appreciate them because this is amazing, this is an amazing day for me, this is an amazing day for all of us and I will never forget it, this is a big deal, this is a huge deal, I know you're tired but keep clapping anyway, I've told you a little bit about why we're here and how we got here from the story of the Alliance to the birth of the Richard Kim Center and I've told you a little bit more about what you see around you, whether it's the 1619 project or whether it is the exhibits that you see in front of you, I'm going to say diaspora, what you see in front of you and we're going to be able to dig a little bit more deeper into, more deeply into that but I'm so honored and I'm so proud and I'm so humbled and I'm so fortunate and I'm so blessed to have a wife in Christine Longmore, I said Longmore because she didn't change her name yet, her name is still Longmore, let me talk about her for a minute, this woman right here saved my life, saved my life and I will forever be in debt to you, I love you with everything that I have, I would be nothing if it wasn't for you and the work that we do together brings fulfillment, it brings joy to me and my heart, you surrounded me with your family who all love me and put up with me and I stopped with Kathleen, but with all of my heart you know and I would say what she's going to tell you but that's not my job, she's just coming and she will speak and she chooses to but I just want to acknowledge the fact that this here is the Richard Kemp Center and this is our director, Christine. Thank you guys, thank you all for being here, it's really hard to know what to say and it's kind of hard to come up here behind that but thank you, I love you too Mark, I'm pretty sure you saved me or God saved us both, so I do want to just say that and I've told a couple of people this story but this really all came out of a visit that Mark and I took to the African-American history and culture museum and no they're not like playing paying me to plug it but if you haven't been there go, black, white, anybody, especially Americans like go, anyone actually, anybody in the whole world, it's an incredible place and the first time that we went two things that I decided, one was that we had to bring a busload of people down there and that's why we're running this video and we did do that and we'll do it again and it was a blast so let me know if you want to go sign up and but the other thing that happened is in the museum there was a place, there was one display that was showing these adrinka symbols and that's what that's what's incorporated into the art that you see and the symbols represent slavery, not of reconciliation, the other one that looks kind of like a little bird is about learning from your past and then there's also another symbol of God so that's you know just from seeing that display in the museum and you remember Mark I was like we have to create a mural out of this and that was a good couple of years ago I was like we have to create a mural out of those symbols and we have to create an annual trip to this museum, if you, I mean the audio on this isn't playing right now but maybe afterwards we'll play it if you hear like what the youth are saying about wanting to go on the trip and learning about their history and also acknowledging the fact that they know that they're not learning the whole history in their schools it's just it's so meaningful and to and to go down there and have that experience with them and even to come back and reflect on it it's just been so rich so just to sort of give you the context of how this all came about and I'm so grateful both to Grace and King and everybody who's supported this Mark everybody our staff Isaac Vincent Winston all of you um this is just fabulous so thank you for being here. Benjamin can you please stand? Winston can you please stand? Grace can you please stand? Jada can you please stand? So Martha can you please stand? Kathleen can you please stand? Steven can you please stand? These are Kims. Honey can you please stand? These are Kims. This is the Richard Kim Center. These folks showed up in full force supporting this work and it's a big deal. If you can't bring family together how you're going to bring anybody else together? This right here represents the vast majority of everybody around here that's Kim the exception of the grandkids but the thing is I just want because this is this is not just for you in this room you're not that special what this is for is is that this is being recorded and we're going to we're going to keep this into perpetuity but as you guys stand you may be seated thank you so much thank you love you all thank you for coming. Benjamin said you can't tell me where to sit down and he's right so here's the deal um this is this is for for us to be able to look back on for us to be able to say remember that time no I don't remember that time but look at this video it's to be able to acknowledge the fact that y'all show up that we show up for each other that we're that at the heart of everything that we're doing here is family and concentric circles beyond that is family is family you are family all of you are family but it starts with that I'm going to invite um if possible um just a couple of remarks um from the artist and maybe uh or at least one of the artists and we'll we'll see it's just just to get a feel for what it is you are experiencing what is you what are you seeing what it is that came from the heart and also I want to open you know if possible if necessary I mean if possible just to be able to get um if there's any questions but they'll be around for later don't crowd my artists don't crowd my family um but I do want to again thank them for coming just a little quick antidote is is that um this work that that we're doing the cultural aspect of it you know it can't it really can't be overstated and what I mean by that is is that um it's impossible for us to be vanilla we can't you know we can't just white wash everything and um and just keep it moving what we're doing right now is we're doing a number of things at the same time we're collecting as the racial justice alliance we're collecting tons and tons of quantitative data that's racially disaggregated that's reflecting the disparities across all social determinants of health while we're moving forward very very important policies some successful none gaining as much ground as we'd like and at the same time we're teaching the root causes and the impacts as well as a lot of the outcomes of this thing we call systemic racism in our neighborhoods with our people and and what that means is is as we embrace that as we as we understand the impacts because we know the impacts we know that there must be community engagement and support to support the people who are in need to create those aforementioned programs and services to partner with some of the stakeholders across our communities and so forth we're doing all of that so the outreach in the education the cultural empowerment the platforms and initiatives um the you know going back to the cultural empowerment I think is is is super important here because you know as it intersects with our community engagement and support in this place and over at the interval on an annual basis increasingly you know what I'm seeing is is expressions of culture I'm seeing the black artist showcase come through here how many people have seen them I'm seeing I'm seeing I'm seeing the black artist market I'm seeing first Friday happening in this place I'm seeing game night I ain't never seen a group of folks play spades like that for years and years I'm seeing chili cookoffs happening in this space but so so culture if it's manifesting itself in our community not just in the form of cultural arts but it's manifesting itself you know in relationships in in spaces affinity spaces finding places where we can connect where otherwise they didn't exist so this all comes together so what I'm trying to get you to see here is that this is a big deal this is this right here is just another layer to all of the other stuff that's going on and we need to be engaged on as many levels as we possibly can black people we need to be engaged on as many as levels as we can so thank you for coming today and with your consent king I'm going to call you to the mic and if we can just hear from you I'd love to hear take your time let's hear about the art let's hear about the work I'm moving my voice on the mic my voice my voice is very extreme yes how are you everyone your sisters and brothers it's my honor to see you all here I do not carve or produce anything without the energy that surrounds me so when when I when those things that we put forth is only what I see in my presence my years of traveling to America all of the hell and the heavens that I did meet here you know sansa we just keep expressing and expressing I find that black you know black history here is being indulged you know there's this kind of mix and you know trying to prescript whatever they choose to put in and take away so I see a lot of black children and low losing themselves so here's my critical race theory for them that's a that's a replacement for them Moses marked it in stone they broke the stones right there's a piece of wood let it burn with them here you know so that's all I could give for that's all I could give as much as you know the soul permits you know that's all there's nothing much to it it's just a it's just a message of the past coming to the present and you said it's a simple the compass represents what in cycles life what goes around will come around it was not taken care of so we're just doomed to the same resolve continually you know sisters and brothers we know I I love all of all my people black white there you know I come from the island of Montserrat my mother's the Irish my grandfather's the Irish man my mother's a my mother's the Irish woman my father's the more the more the more is maroon so in the island we enter mixed and they call the black Irish you see me and you know in in that kind of mixture now we came I saw I saw the most extremes of life I saw when I saw when I was a child the Irish man said grandel my mother's name you bring on my nigga child grandel and I said oh that was five years old then over the time I started to see you understand where the levels of racism and how hateism racism is not real it's an illusion that was indulged by scientists and and psychologists and then preprogrammed into society and we black people love accept racism as a natural part of things and so-called whites they say you know they they they're racist but they can't even afford to be racist they're not racist as to do with wealth to the way they exceed in some speed so I replaced that in the culture of things that's how we that's how we're putting in the carpet that's what they get out of grace are just pointing to the memories of things that are and we are things ahead of and we are things shouldn't be so it's past but in the future whichever you which ever part of it you choose to accept i'm a reclusive man so maybe not mine you know i'm very reclusive i stay to i stay to the bushes and i'm a mountain man so there's a blessing to be here with you that was easy thank you very much you're welcome brother i love you brother you'll go anywhere he's mean to me stay here stay here stay here so what i want to do is i want to i want to open up some if there's any questions or anything for for king about any of the art that you've seen so far i want to give you an opportunity to do so we've got a mic that's going to be coming around the room if you have any questions at all if you want if you wouldn't mind just stand it up and say what it is you're going to say and king come back to the mic please well we got we got video to be concerned about too yes it's all about accessibility so i just want to say first and foremost grace and king like hard body you know when you look when you really look at those photos and really take a chance to stop pause and connect you can see yourself in the past present and future and it's it's not just as mark say art hop this is a cultural empowerment center we are really really really changing the lives of not just ourselves but our community so just you know i just want to give both of you you know your flowers for really really enhancing the community by sharing this piece and pouring out what you what you've done because it's not only going to be uplifting for us but it's going to be uplifting for the community members that that's soon to come and soon to be here as well so i just want to say thank you thank you all what it's good to thank i thought the most i got that's what was that was the blessing that was given to mama to jeeta look where jeeta i saw jeeta i saw jeeta many years ago you know that's my love that's already many years ago and from that time just connected i to a family so all time just takes a cycle and twist you know then that's all that's all family begets family but family the word family is a simple word it also comes to the word familiar so familiarization is not it's not the closest of family but who you're most familiar with that becomes family so you understand so you know it's only it's only the return of self i'm not taking from not taking anything or giving anything it's you that it is you created that you know that's what you're created other questions other comments that come oh you're just going to ask him by himself i see it's a personal question others okay thank you so much you're welcome for coming give it up for king grace again please i mean like i mean really give it up really give it up really give it up make yourself tired so um you are welcome you are welcome anytime he said he sees me come through the struggle you bet your butt i come through the struggle so listen here's what we're going to do now i want to um first of all i just want to thank you thank you all for coming out for those who who have come again um this is great we've got um you know what looks like just some amazing work back here and i just wanted to say one thing about one piece um and that's um the one that's the second from the right here um as you look back there and you're going to see um for those of you who are watching we're so clever that we're getting ready to just focus in on it right now you don't see it right over my shoulder um and um i was reminded grace of a work that you did um and it wasn't as um fantastical it was amazing but it wasn't like big it was probably like about this big that big you don't even know it's what i'm talking about you do okay but i'm i'm reminded of it because it was hanging on the wall in in our room for a while and it just had so it was so rich with so many messages and so many symbols and so many connections and and and actually it was painful it was painful to look at because what it was actually communicating collectively but it was difficult to process because it was so rich that you had to stand in front of it so i'm not telling you to stand in front of it because you need to get out the way so the next person can see but i but i am saying at least stop for a minute take a picture of it or something like that yes it's that one that that one at the prison there yeah that one you see it um and um so i want to thank you for that because that brought a lot home to me and really resonated i'm not taken away from any of the other art at all but that right there um i've just highly encouraged you to take a very close look at that one in particular okay again thank you for coming out i'm going to leave you on the hands of christine who at this time is going to i hope inform you of anything else you need to be aware of this upcoming out of the camp center and and also um properly release you okay christine so we do have um part of the video you're seeing here is our uh back in school block party not back to school back in school we purposely did that a little ways into the school year because everybody else was doing the back to school stuff we got to be different a day right we got to be unique so we do have a uh back to school thing coming up we have um youth movie night every we just did one last night second and fourth uh fridays um we have a game night that we just gotten started so i feel like i'm missing something vinson isaac yeah the block party yeah chess club on tuesday the block party is the 30th the last saturday in the month we'll block off this side of the street thank you winston for getting the permit um and as long as it's nice out we'll be out there like we did before grilling and we have a basketball hoop up and just playing games hanging out um and i think that's it the other thing too is that to stay up to date with anything that we have going on you can visit either the vermont racial justice alliance website or the richard camp website so thank you all for coming out so my name is grace lawnmore this is the first in the diaspora series um and so the whole series is really supposed to just kind of shine light on our history as black people and um black descendants of slaves and also the narrative kind of before slavery and also what's going on currently and even what we could aspire to and so this first one is really supposed to be more of an ode to what happened or where we were before that all started so this is the second painting in the diaspora series um and it's i think clearer to kind of understand what is depicting it's the passage of slavery um and you know obviously the ocean and just the concept of you know the the arm with the shackle which also ties into um another piece that's a couple paintings down so this is the third in the diaspora series um and it's very specifically referencing um pertinent points in history and our work as black people and the many different things that we've done that have helped build this society that we all live in and some of us flourish in today and so this is not even close to covering the magnitude of of what all of that entails but it does you know you can see the cotton field down here there's a couple of men and also a woman with a child on her back um which is you know not referencing any specific thing but definitely historically accurate um men working to build uh rail rail railroad systems this man philip reid um designed the freedom the statue of freedom that's sitting on top of the us capital the tusky airmen um the inventor of the traffic light and also the gas mask um a very prominent historic black chemist female and also the first um heart surgery that happened was done by a black so this is the fourth painting in the diaspora series and i want to keep the comments about it very limited because i want it to be a piece that's reflected upon um but what i will say is that the last few were more of an o2 history this is really shining light on current events and where some of us unfortunately find ourselves statistically and in in this world today and so this is the fifth and final painting in the diaspora series um and this one is you know kind of ties in well to the one before it um it's really supposed to be an o2 what the future can look like and and what it should look like and just more of what we should aspire to